5 Polytechnic High School Students Land $1K Payday After Getting Into MIT

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SUN VALLEY (CBSLA.com) — Five exceptional students from Sun Valley’s Polytechnic High School are being rewarded for their efforts after getting accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Andrew Koh, Reymundo Cano, Kevin Escobar, GiMin Choi and William Lopez-Cordero recently received their acceptance letters. And now Farmers Insurance has handed each student $1,000 to get them started at college.

Chuck Browning, head of Sponsorships and Corporate Giving, applauded the students’ efforts.

“It’s an incredible accomplishment. I mean, how often do you have one school with five students who have achieved what these students have – attendance at MIT?” Browning asked.

Farmers also gave $5,000 to the math and science magnet – a thank you for inspiring students like the “MIT 5″ to reach their goals.

“I’m really proud, I’m so happy to see them succeeding like this, going to MIT. This has been their dream for lots of years,” teacher Ramon Gomez said.

All five young men say they’ve always wanted to go to MIT. They say the day they got their acceptance letters still feels surreal.

“I started screaming like a little girl after I opened mine,” Koh said.

“It’s amazing. It’s still surreal that we all just got in and we’re celebrating together like this, it’s amazing,” Cano added.

“After the moment I read the first line I was so filled with joy and disbelief, I just kept on shouting,” Escobar said.

Farmers Insurance is also launching an initiative to find the five most extraordinary teachers across the country. Those five teachers will receive $100,000 dollars each toward school programs.